I just felt like telling everyone that I'll be going to a lunch on Wednesday 21 July here in Canberra to mark the 35th anniversary of Apollo 11's landing on the Moon. Most of the people at the lunch will be former employees of the Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station such as Mike Dinn and John Saxon, but a few other VIPs will be there, such as Neal Newman, NASA's representative in Australia, and Eric Jones, the web-master of the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal.

They'll also be playing the voicetrack of Armstrong and Aldrin, 35 years to the second (we're talking engineers, after all) after they originally spoke their lines.

A couple of other things happening too.

Thanks to Harald for letting me know.

Is that 35 years to the second after they spoke their lines or 35 years to the second after they were received at the tracking station?



Rob

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"Crackpot theories 1 : Regular theories a billion." Fry

Did anybody else read the thread title as "Apollo 11 35th anniversary launch?"

My first thought was " Hey!".

Quite the let-down, actually.

:wink:

D'OH! #-o

(raises hand sheepishly)

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"Earth diameter is 7,900 miles, and Moon diameter is 2,160 miles. It takes on average 90 minutes to complete one Earth orbit, so one Moon orbit should take roughly 25 minutes." - Sam "NasaScam" Colby

Bearer of the highly coveted "I found Venus in nine Apollo photos" sweatsocks.

DataCable^2008 A+

Maybe Scaled will do it if the testflight on Monday goes well...

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"Flying in space is risky business, but just staying on this planet is risky business too." - John Young, astronaut

This past week NASA has conducted interviews with the new astronaut class, asking them among other things how Apollo 11 has affected them.

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Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.

--Niels Bohr, Danish Physicist.

What was of bigger influence on the choice of todays young astronaut candidates? Apollo, Star Trek or Star Wars?

Harald

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"Flying in space is risky business, but just staying on this planet is risky business too." - John Young, astronaut

A little reminder for everyone that I'll be at a lunch tomorrow to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Apollo 11. I hope to take a few photos and maybe talk to some of the stars of Honeysuckle Creek.

some of the stars of Honeysuckle Creek

And Eric Jones -- Apollo Lunar Surface Journal.
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/frame.html

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"Flying in space is risky business, but just staying on this planet is risky business too." - John Young, astronaut

Well, AGN Fuel and I attended the lunch yesterday, and it was great.

There were about 180 people present. Most of them were HSK staff, but there were some from Parkes and the Department of Supply as well. Also, there were a few enthusiasts like us. Eric Jones of the ALSJ was there, along with Neal Newman, NASA's rep in Australia. I had a chance to speak to both of them, and Mike Dinn.

From about 1250 we watched the Apollo 11 footage, which on a new DVD, includes the conversations on the Honeysuckle net. So, for example, when the first image appeared, upside down, we heard someone ask about the setting of a switch. At 1256, when Armstrong took the first step, there was applause (35 years, nearly to the second!). Then, a few minutes later, when Parkes provided the feed, there was applause and cheering from the Parkes people present.

After this, there was a brief description of the DVD, put together by an enthusiast in Sydney (and mentioned on the site Harald mentioned). Then there was a book launch, of a book written by local author Jackie French and her partner (whose name I can't remember). Her partner worked at HSK, and the book is about the Moon landings and HSK's part in them. The book is intended for 10 to 14 year olds, but is good enough for adults.

AGN Fuel and I then left, and we drove out to the HSK site, about 30 km south of Canberra, deep in the Namadgi National Park. There was some snow lying around, which AGN Fuel hadn't experienced before. It's a beautiful site, way out in the bush, where the only sounds are gum trees stirring in the breeze, bird calls and the occasional jet flying far overhead.

I took a few photos, which I'll get my brother to put on a CD, so I can email them out. I don't have a way to host these pictures, so if anyone can do this, please let me know. It'd be good for the BABB presence at the event to be recorded for posterity.

All in all, a very enjoyable day.

By the way, Harald, AGN Fuel and I both signed your book!

Eric just told me that he taught you people how to pronounce "Kucharek".
There is a short sound file with my bio at the ALSJ where you can listen yourself:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/Hi...alsj/harald.au

The .au doesn't mean it's the pronounciation for Aussies ;-) It's just a pretty old simple audio file format. I hope your broswer/player understand it.

Harald

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"Flying in space is risky business, but just staying on this planet is risky business too." - John Young, astronaut

G'day Harald

I didn't get to Eric's lesson, and I can't open the file.

But I'm going to assume the -ch- in Kucharek is the same as in Bach. All I need to know is which syllable is accented. The first?

I would just like to agree with Peter B that it was a wonderful event. It was a rare opportunity to meet and chat with so many of the MSFN & DSN veterans such as John Saxon, Hamish Lindsay and Mike Dinn. It was also a pleasure to meet Eric Jones and personally express my appreciation (I am sure shared by us all!) for all his work on the ALSJ. It was also quite touching that all three of the Apollo 11 crew wrote messages of thanks to the MSFN people gathered for the celebration - especially Mike Collins, who rued the fact that it had been 35 years since his last Swan Lager!

The DVD prepared by Colin McKellar is fascinating. It combines the voice transmissions between Houston & the astronauts with the synchronized Net2 communications between the MSFN stations. It is a powerful reminder of the huge amount of activity continually going on 'behind the scenes' of the Apollo missions. It also graphically illustrated the fact that it was the feed from Honeysuckle Creek that the world saw for that famous first step - a point that Mike Dinn was quick to emphasise to the Parkes people! (Although there was an enthusiatic cheer from that quarter a few minutes later when Net2 indicated that the feed should be taken from Parkes in view of the better picture quality!)

I would very much like to thank Peter B for taking me out to the HSK site. It was quite moving to walk around the now derelict area and think back on the >100 people who 35 years ago to that day had made HSK abuzz with activity. Now, its sparce remnants are deep in the beautiful bushland of a national park, with just some plaques and a statue to celebrate the memories and the bellbirds to break the still silence. And snow - I can now tick 'make a snowball' off my checklist of things I need to do in my life!

All in all - a wonderful occasion and a truly memorable day. Again, my deepest thanks to Peter B for allowing me to be part of it all!

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"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." - Douglas Adams

Perhaps you need a more ancient computer system...
On occasion, I've the give Eric a new one with a more modern style...
Yup.
I'd say, none of them.

By chance, I recognized yesterday that the spokesman of the NORAD commander is also a Kucharek. Surely he has a completely different pronounciation. And surely, in the original language it's again completely different.

Harald

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"Flying in space is risky business, but just staying on this planet is risky business too." - John Young, astronaut